Shipwreck featured in Yorktown Day presentation

Renowned underwater archaeologist, John Broadwater, will discuss his findings from a survey this summer of a newly discovered shipwreck in the York River at the Yorktown Victory Center this weekend.

The presentation coincides with Yorktown Day weekend which commemorates the 1781 Siege of Yorktown, a battle that effectively ended the Revolutionary War.

The presentation "Yorktown Shipwrecks: 2010 Archaeology and Past Surveys" is sponsored by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and will features Broadwater's findings from a survey of a shipwreck conducted in August.

The boat was initially discovered by a sonar test in 2008 and is located near the Betsy, a Revolutionary War era ship that was among several scuttled by British General Charles Cornwallis in an effort to block the French Navy.

Broadwater has previously said that although there were no conclusive findings indicating the new ship was part of the scuttled fleet, he suspects that it is.

Nine other ships that have been confirmed as part of the sunken fleet have been mapped in the York River, with seven on the Yorktown side of the river and two on the Gloucester side. Broadwater was among several archaeologists to excavate the Betsy in the 1980s.